Service personnel who are involved in various dangerous occupations, including corrections, confinement, law enforcement, and intelligence operations, as well as soldiers and other members of the U.S. Armed Forces, would often benefit from using body armor. The missions of these service personnel expose them to a variety of threats, including knives, blades, spikes, and other improvised weaponry. Small arms (handguns and small-caliber weapons) can also be a concern in some circumstances. However, the armor used to protect against these threats is often bulky and uncomfortable for all-day wear.
An armor panel that can be worn for long periods of time requires a soft, flexible, lightweight material with good hand and drape. Another important factor that affects comfort is planar compressibility (referred to herein generally as “compressibility”), which is the ability of a nominally planar garment panel to be foreshortened or “compressed” within its plane, so that it occupies a smaller planar area. Normal garments are compressible, and do not significantly restrict motion as a wearer bends, sits, twists and goes about other daily activities. However, an incompressible armor panel tends to restrict motions that must be accommodated by a reduction of the distance between the belt line and the neck line of any garments being worn. Such motions include bending and sitting movements that require foreshortening of the front torso length as a wearer transitions from one position to another. Accordingly, compressible armor panels would be much more comfortable for users than the relatively incompressible solutions that are generally available.
One approach, primarily intended for protection against knife, blade, spike, and similar threats, is to provide an array of solid protective elements supported in an adjoining configuration by a flexible supporting sheet made from a high-performance textile, thereby providing the protection of a steel plate but with the flexibility of a textile. This technology is generally referred to as “Metal Flex Armor” or “MFA,” although the term MFA as used herein also includes designs that are based on non-metallic rigid solid elements. MFA is widely used, and is a major presence in the stab protection market. When ballistic protection is required, MFA panels are sometimes used in combination with ballistic panels, for example by providing a fabric carrier having separate sleeves or pockets for supporting the MFA and ballistic panels.
MFA technology is generally based on small solid elements which fit together in an array. FIG. 1A illustrates manufacture of an MFA panel 100 using triangular solid elements 102 arranged in a hexagonal pattern, while FIG. 1B illustrates a protective vest 104 manufactured using the panel 100 of FIG. 1A. FIG. 2A illustrates a spike threat 200 impinging on an MFA array 100 of triangular solid elements, and FIG. 2B illustrates a blade threat 202 impinging on an MFA array of triangular solid elements 100.
In many existing MFA designs, the supporting sheets are made from para-aramid, which offers good flame resistance, durability, and Berry compliance, but lacks in drape and hand.
As noted above, an MFA panel can provide the protection of a steel plate with flexibility that approximates a textile. However, existing MFA designs have very low compressibility, due to the closely spaced placement of the solid elements on the supporting sheet, and therefore can be uncomfortable for all-day wear.
What is needed, therefore, is a knife/blade/spike protective MFA panel that provides the protection of a steel plate with flexibility approximating a textile, while also providing high compressibility as compared to currently available MFA designs.